Israeli Demonstrators Against Autopsies Released on Bail

March 23, 1967

JERUSALEM (Mar. 22)

Twelve persons arrested after last Tuesday’s demonstration against autopsies were released from jail yesterday on 1, 000 pounds($333) bail each. They were detained on suspicion of assaulting policemen and disorderly conduct and the Legal Adviser is considering whether to charge them.

Meanwhile, police were searching the Kurdish quarter of Jerusalem today for the body of a Kurdish Jew that was stolen from the morgue at Shaarei Zedek Hospital in an apparent attempt to prevent police from carrying out a post-morten examination. The dead man, Nahum Nahum, had been knifed in an argument during a card game in a Jerusalem cafe and he died on the way to the hospital.

Rumors that the police intended to perform an autopsy on the body spread yesterday throughout the Kurdish quarter where the victim’s family lives and several hundred religious zealots, mainly yeshiva students, gathered around the hospital and urged the family to remove the body from the morgue. Shortly after midnight last night several persons broke into the morgue and stole the corpse. Police believe the body is either hidden or has been secretly buried in the Kurdish quarter,